作者： 汉娜·拉比诺维茨
发布时间： 2026年3月3日，美国东部时间上午8:26
（图片说明：2026年2月23日，华盛顿特区司法部大楼悬挂着特朗普总统的横幅。Annabelle Gordon/Sipa USA/AP/File）
据两名知情人士透露，就在美国对伊朗发动重大军事行动的几天前，联邦调查局（FBI）局长卡什·帕特尔解雇了反间谍部门CI-12中12名负责监控伊朗威胁的特工和工作人员。
他们被解职的原因很简单：这些人均参与了对总统唐纳德·特朗普涉嫌在海湖庄园（Mar-a-Lago）保留机密文件的调查。
结果，帕特尔削弱了总部位于华盛顿特区的FBI反间谍部门CI-12的能力。该部门负责处理从机密文件处理不当到追踪在美境内活动的外国间谍等各类案件。
据多名知情人士透露，此次解雇加剧了司法部和FBI内部的担忧：伊朗军事行动后，反恐和情报调查可能因国家安全专家的大规模离职而受阻。
消息人士称，与CI-12部门类似，多名因参与特朗普相关调查而被解职或重新分配职务的高级官员，导致司法部和FBI损失了数十年在识别潜在威胁方面的综合经验——而这些威胁据信可能在“史诗 Fury行动”后出现。
司法部未立即回应置评请求。FBI拒绝对人事问题置评，但在声明中表示该局“维持着强大的反间谍行动，人员遍布全国”。
FBI发言人补充道：“我们的团队在全国范围内全面投入工作，并随时准备调动所需的任何安全资源，协助联邦合作伙伴以及州和地方执法部门。”
《纽约太阳报》率先报道了CI-12部门员工在上周解雇事件中成为目标。
伊朗威胁
在特朗普第一任期内，CI-12部门在追踪伊朗政权对2020年无人机袭击杀死伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队圣城旅前领导人卡西姆·苏莱曼尼将军的报复行动中发挥了关键作用。
此后，伊朗支持的行动者因策划暗杀特朗普、前国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥和前国家安全顾问约翰·博尔顿等被指控，而这些人被伊朗指为苏莱曼尼之死的责任人。
根据CNN获得的FBI与国土安全部联合报告，尽管多年来执法部门多次挫败相关阴谋，威胁仍在持续。
这份去年8月撰写的非机密报告称，伊朗安全部门“适应性强且机会主义”，并概述了该国如何招募海外特工（如摩托帮成员和毒贩）以掩盖伊朗参与，以及这些特工如何在阴谋中使用暗语、一次性手机和加密货币。
一名知情人士告诉CNN，自美国首次对伊朗发动打击以来，没有迹象表明威胁有所增加或“休眠特工”被激活。不过，国内执法部门仍像海外军事冲突后通常所做的那样，加强了对威胁的监控。
人力削减一半
数十年来，司法部特工和检察官一直致力于识别和挫败伊朗支持的行动者在美国境内的威胁，尤其是伊朗政权对暗杀或绑架阴谋的偏好。
但与CI-12部门一样，负责监控这些外国威胁的司法部团队自特朗普政府开始以来，已因多轮解雇和辞职而严重受损。专家担忧，尽管部门尽了最大努力，未来可能无法应对袭击。
知情人士告诉CNN，司法部国家安全司的许多办公室至少流失了一半员工，包括负责反恐的办公室。负责反间谍和国际恐怖主义工作的FBI高级官员也被调离岗位。
可以肯定的是，FBI和司法部在过去一年中调查并起诉了多起涉及国家安全和恐怖主义的案件，包括针对为伊朗提供资金支持、窃取商业机密或威胁美国境内人员的个人。
但接受CNN匿名采访的现任和前任检察官、调查人员及员工表示，人力短缺导致难以全面监控国家安全威胁。
“如果你失去一半的能力，你就失去了一半的行动力，”一名前司法部高级官员在谈及国家安全团队时告诉CNN，“这本身就是令人担忧的原因。”
国家安全司的瓦解始于特朗普政府早期。司法部长帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）上任第一天发布一系列备忘录，暂停了所有针对企业外国贿赂的调查，削减了外国代理人登记法的执法力度，并弱化了对俄罗斯寡头的刑事起诉。
司法部反间谍办公室负责人、法律与政策办公室负责人、部门执行干事及至少三名其他高级官员均被解职。
部分官员被调至司法部内部其他影响力较小的岗位。例如，邦迪将国家安全司代理负责人降职，原因是她发现该部门前厅仍悬挂着前总统乔·拜登的肖像，随后由特朗普提名的官员接任。
消息人士称，大规模离职导致留任的职业官员与司法部政治领导层之间产生不信任，使该部门“完全被掏空并遭到破坏”。
一些国家安全司员工告诉CNN，他们在参加会议时甚至不了解案件、调查或情报的全部细节。一名前官员表示，负责国家安全委员会的检察官在会议中缺乏“关键背景”，无法就当天讨论的议题提供部门官方立场，导致他们“感到困惑”。
数月的爱泼斯坦文件审查进一步影响了人力配置——一些通常处理国家安全事务的律师和FBI特工被临时调去在文件公开前进行删改。
“你只能戴上眼罩，希望自己不会被要求做政治相关工作，”一名前官员表示，“不要让使命改变。”
CNN的柯特·迪瓦恩（Curt Devine）对本文亦有贡献。
Kash Patel gutted FBI counterintelligence team tasked with tracking Iranian threats days before US strikes, sources say
By Hannah Rabinowitz
2 hr ago
PUBLISHED Mar 3, 2026, 8:26 AM ET
A banner of President Trump hangs from the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC on February 23, 2026.
Annabelle Gordon/Sipa USA/AP/File
Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
They were ousted for a simple reason: Each was involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
As a result, Patel hamstrung the Washington, DC-based FBI counterintelligence unit, known as CI-12, which handles cases ranging from mishandling of classified documents to tracking foreign spies operating on US soil.
The dismissals have added to concern inside the Justice Department and FBI that counterterrorism and intelligence investigations in the wake of the military operation in Iran could be hampered by a mass exodus of national security experts, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
And like the CI-12 unit, several senior officials were ousted or reassigned because of their involvement in Trump-related investigations, sources say. The removals have cost the Justice Department and FBI decades of combined experience in identifying the types of threats that sources say could appear in the wake of Operation Epic Fury.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment on personnel matters but told CNN in a statement the bureau “maintains a robust counterintelligence operation, with personnel all over the country.”
“Our teams remain fully engaged across the country and [are] prepared to mobilize any security assets needed to assist federal partners – as well as state and local law enforcement,” an FBI spokesperson said.
The New York Sun first reported that employees from the CI-12 unit had been targeted in last week’s firings.
Iranian threats
In Trump’s first term, CI-12 was instrumental in tracking potential threats from the Iranian regime in retaliation for the 2020 drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, then-leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.
Iranian-backed actors have since been charged with plots to assassinate American officials that Iran has blamed for Soleimani’s death, including Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security advisor John Bolton.
The threats have continued despite years of law enforcement disruptions, according to a joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security report obtained by CNN.
The unclassified report, which was written last August, described Iran’s security services as “adaptable and opportunistic” and outlined how the nation has recruited operatives abroad whose identities obfuscate Iranian involvement, such as biker gang members and drug traffickers, and how operatives have used codewords, burner phones and cryptocurrency in such plots.
There is nothing to indicate there have been any increased threats or activated “sleeper agents” since the US first launched strikes against Iran, one person told CNN. Domestic law enforcement has nonetheless heightened their monitoring for threats as is typical after military conflict abroad.
Manpower cut in half
Justice Department agents and prosecutors have for decades worked to identify and thwart threats from Iranian-backed actors on American soil, particularly the regime’s penchant for assassinations or kidnapping plots.
But like CI-12, DOJ teams dedicated to monitoring those foreign threats have been decimated by waves of firings and resignations since the beginning of the Trump administration, and experts worry that despite their best efforts, the department could be unprepared to manage future attacks.
Many of the offices in the DOJ’s National Security Division have lost at least half of their employees, people familiar with the matter told CNN, including the office dedicated to counterterrorism. And senior FBI officials who oversaw counterintelligence and international terrorism efforts have been pushed out.
To be sure, the FBI and DOJ have investigated and brought many national security and terrorism related cases in the last year, including against individuals who supported Iran financially, stole trade secrets or threatened individuals on US soil.
But current and former prosecutors, investigators and employees who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution described a lack of manpower that made it difficult to fully monitor threats to national security.
“If you lose half your capacity, you lose half your ability,” one former senior DOJ official told CNN of the national security teams. “That in itself is a reason to be concerned.”
The dismantling of the National Security Division began early in the Trump administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi published a series of memos on her first day that paused all investigations into corporate foreign bribery, curtailed enforcement of a foreign agent registration law and deemphasized the criminal prosecutions of Russian oligarchs.
The head of the DOJ’s counterintelligence office was pushed out, as was the person who led the division’s office of law and policy; the division’s executive officer; and at least three other senior officials.
Some of the officials were transferred to other jobs inside the DOJ where they would have less influence on big decisions. In one instance, Bondi demoted the National Security Division’s acting head because she saw a portrait of former President Joe Biden was still hanging in the division’s front office. He was replaced by Trump’s official nominee to the position.
The mass departures have led to a distrust between the remaining career officials and the DOJ’s political leaders, sources said, and has left the division “completely gutted and undermined.”
Some National Security Division employees told CNN that they have been sent into meetings without the full details of a case, investigation or intelligence. One former official told CNN that prosecutors dedicated to the National Security Council have gone into meetings without “key context” on council is discussing that day, hampering their ability to give the official views of the department on high-level national security matters and leaving them “feeling crazy.”
Manpower was further affected by the monthslong review of the Epstein files, as some attorneys and FBI agents who typically work on national security matters were instead tasked with redacting documents before their public release.
“You just put blinders on and hope you don’t get tapped to do something political,” one former official said. “Don’t let the mission change.”
CNN’s Curt Devine contributed to this report.
